A COLOMBIAN trade unionist and rights activist who spent more than two years in jail visited a Kenmare school yesterday to thank two transition-year students who helped secure her release.
Rosalba Gaviria Toro is visiting Ireland as a guest of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and campaign group Justice for Colombia (Ireland).
She was jailed by Colombian authorities in March 2009 and released in June having been cleared of a charge of rebellion.
The head of Colombia’s Women’s Movement for Peace and Human Rights, Ms Gaviria Toro, travelled to Kenmare to meet Ellie Gudgeon and Annie Cooper at Pobalscoil Inbhear Scéine.
The two girls became active in the campaign for her release, which was organised in Ireland by the global solidarity committee of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions and Justice for Colombia (Ireland).
“It’s a great thrill for us to meet Rosalba in person. We didn’t really expect her to come. She is one of the most important people ever to visit our school,” said Ellie.
Ms Gaviria Toro wrote to the two girls from Villa Cristina Prison in Quindío, Colombia: “I look forward to meeting you and thanking you in person.”
She was freed on June 3rd.
More than 400 letters protesting against her imprisonment without trial, and signed by pupils and teachers at the school, were sent to the Colombian embassy in London.
Speaking through an interpreter yesterday, Ms Gaviria Toro said the letters were an extremely important part of the international campaign for her release.
“I think it was one of the main things that helped me, and visiting the school to express my appreciation is my main mission in Ireland,” she said.
She was welcomed to the 500-pupil school by principal Dermot Healy and civics teacher Ann Piggott, who encouraged her third-year pupils to become involved in the Ictu-organised campaign. Colombia, Ms Gaviria Toro said, was the most dangerous country in the world. A leading member of Fensuargo, the agriculture workers’ union, she said prisoners in Colombia included trade unionists, student activists, community leaders, human rights defenders and academics who oppose the governing regime.